May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
Can you imagine what a boring place this world would have been if Almighty God had created all of us the same; with the same brain, the same way of thinking, the same personalities, just everything the same? We would not have had anyone or anything to challenge us, we would not have had the ability to use our brains to interpret and choose for ourselves how to live our lives.
Today we start a new liturgical year, a time for deep reflection. You see, the past is in the past, and as Christians we don’t look back, we look forward. We take what we have learned from the past and move forward, with the light of Christ as our guide.
My dear brothers and sisters, this morning we lit the first candle on the Advent wreathe, the candle of hope; we read from the gospel of what is to come, the apocalyptic time – a time that is not there to scare us, but to give us hope. Hope that we are not to worry about the future (the apocalyptic time), God has got that sorted out. We have to focus on the here and the now.
Reflecting on the here and the now, how are we planning to journey with Almighty God through this new liturgical year?
Last year you may have stumbled a lot; the question is: are you going to stay there or are you getting up, allowing yourself to experience God’s love through the sacrament of reconciliation?
Last year you may have felt so broken; the question is: are you going to stay in that broken state or are you going to allow Jesus to give you that healing that He desires to give you as you receive Him through the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist?
There are so many places that we might have found ourselves so far from Almighty God within the past year (and a gentle reminder: we were far from Him, not Him from us).
But, there is HOPE, for with God there is always another chance, if only we take it and use it with the dignity it deserves. As we prepare our hearts through this Advent period – for week after week, we will come to light the other candles of peace, joy and love, in preparation to celebrate the Nativity of our Lord – may we use this time to dig deep within ourselves and do introspection on our walk with our Creator, Saviour and Sustainer.
Uniquely different as we are, precious and beautiful within the eyes of Almighty God, with all our flaws, hear this message of HOPE this morning, that there is another chance if you decide you want to walk closer with Almighty God this new liturgical year.
Happy New Year to everyone, may it be a year filled with Almighty God’s wonder in all of our lives as we journey with Him, for only with Him and in Him do we find that HOPE, PEACE, JOY and experience that wonderful LOVE.